Chapter 94: Samar (4)
Elves were swift-footed. Especially in the forest, where elves ran so fast that it looked as if they were receiving magical assistance.
However, elves or otherwise, there was no way that they could still run that fast on just a single leg. A one-legged elf could run fast enough that it was hard to believe that they were one-legged, but it was impossible for them to outrun the skilled slavers that were after them.
Their[1] heart felt like it was about to burst, their sloppy prosthetic leg had already started to shatter, and their head felt like it was spinning.
The elf had a gut feeling that it wouldn’t be long before they collapsed. But they absolutely couldn’t allow themself to do so. After having finally reached Samar, they were afraid that once they collapsed, they would open their eyes again not knowing where they were.
“Haiyah!”
The sharp cries of their pursuers were drawing closer. This sound was the hunting cry of the rainforest’s native tribes. The tribal warriors were whooping cheerfully as they chased down the fleeing elf on the back of their mounts, the giant Vakhan Wolves.
If they had wanted to, they could have caught their prey right away. By not doing so, they were trying to keep their prey from breaking down in despair.
Elves were highly sought-after prey. Rather than catching these elves and and using them as slaves of the tribe, the native slavers preferred to sell them to the foreign slave traders who came all the way to Samar just to purchase these elves.
As such, they couldn’t allow themselves to seriously injure their prey. Since the value of the elf had already dropped due to the fact that it was one-legged, if they left a scar on its body as well, the drop in price would be more than they could accept.
The elf, who had been running with a limp, came to a halt with a sharp gasp. “...Aah…!”
Because they had been running like crazy, they hadn’t been paying any attention to the sounds of their surroundings. No, more than that, it was because their reason had been clouded by the terrifying cries of the natives.
This was what had led them to almost run off the edge of a cliff. With shaking eyes, the elf looked down. The foot off the cliff, a great distance below, was covered by a flowing river.
They needed to find a different path. Limping, the elf made to withdraw. But then, a long spear thudded into the ground near the elf.
“Kyaaah!” The elf let out a scream as their shoulders trembled in fright.
The tribal warriors were blocking the elf’s way back from the cliff. The Vakhan wolves carrying the warriors were letting out growling sounds as they bared their sharp fangs.
The hideously masked natives snickered as they gestured towards the elf. The meaning behind their gestures was that the elf should just give up resistance and quietly allow themself to be caught.
The elf bit down on their trembling lips. There was no way that they could communicate with these barbarians. After they had first encountered each other, the elf had tried begging them for mercy several times, but the natives only ever spoke amongst themselves in a language that only they knew the meaning of.
The elf hesitantly stepped backward. A few of the natives who had gotten down from the backs of their Vakhan wolves approached the elf. They had put down their spears and spread their arms wide, as if to show that they didn’t intend any harm to the elf.
But behind their round masks with eye sockets that looked like they had been torn open with a knife, the elf saw the greed and lust gleaming within their eyes. Their gazes drove the elf’s body to make a risky move.
Swallowing an instinctive scream, the elf threw themself off of the cliff.
* * *
Stomp-stomp!
Having rolled up her trouser cuffs, Kristina was stomping her laundry. Prior to becoming a saint candidate, she had been an orphan abandoned at a monastery. Thanks to this, she was used to chores like doing the laundry.
“It seems like you’re enjoying yourself,” Kristina sourly commented as she turned to glare at Eugene with narrowed eyes.
Although she was used to them, it didn’t mean that she enjoyed them.
“It’s not like I’m just playing around.” Eugene defended himself.
Eugene had set up a fishing rod and was sitting by the river. But after having done all that, he wasn’t even focussing on fishing. Instead, he had even brought out a chair for him to sit comfortably on and was absorbed in a book of magic.
“By reading this book of magic, I learn more magic, and by learning more magic, I become stronger,” Eugene insisted. “As I get stronger, the risks that we’ll face further along in our journey are reduced. If that happens, then—”
“You’re quite wordy today.” Kristina interrupted him.
“That’s because I’ve already had to say this several times now, but you keep questioning me. If you didn’t want to suffer like this, then you shouldn’t have followed me,” Eugene said with a dismissive shrug as he flipped the page. “It’s not like I’m playing around. And it’s not like I’m overworking you either. Aren’t you familiar with the term ‘role allocation’?”
“You’re right, I said something pointless. So please just focus on your reading,” Kristina said exasperatedly.
Eugene continued despite her protests, “It’s not like I’m making you do chores like the laundry all the time either. I take care of the hunting and the fighting, and I also handle drying the laundry. All you need to do is the laundry and the cooking, right? Even then, your cooking doesn’t taste that good, so I’m the one who usually handles it.”
“Weren’t you going to do some studying?” Kristina reminded him.
“Now that I’ve brought it up, I have to say, there’s way too many problems with how you cook,” Eugene continued his lecture. “Haven’t I already told you so many times that I prefer stronger flavors? And the meat should not be overcooked, just to an extent where it’s slightly dripping with blood.”
“I’m doing it out of concern for your body, Sir Eugene.” Kristina defended herself.
“I suspect that you’re just cooking according to your own tastes,” Eugene accused. “I’m at the peak of health, so I won’t catch anything from eating a dripping red steak that’s been smothered in spices.”
Kristina stopped protesting and just kept her lips shut.
It had already been over a month since they had first entered this forest. A lot had happened along the way, and Kristina had gotten a good grasp of how intractable Eugene’s personality was. Especially when it came to arguments, as Kristina had never been able to defeat Eugene in a straight debate. Kristina had always thought that as a priest, she should maintain a compassionate heart, but after talking with Eugene, she felt the urge to forget about her priesthood and just sock him in the back of his head.
“Does that book happen to have any spells related to washing clothes written in it?” Kristina asked hopefully.
“Does your holy magic have any laundry spells?” Eugene returned the question.
“Why would holy magic have any spells for doing the laundry?” Kristina protested.
“Then why should I have to learn any laundry spells?” Eugene pointed out. “How many times will I ever end up having to do my own laundry?”
This was actually a lie. Among the various spells that Eugene had learned in Aroth, there were also a few laundry spells. He had just started making Kristina do the laundry as a bit of a prank to relieve his boredom. However, if he came clean now, and told her that he did actually know how to use magic to do the laundry, he was afraid that he might just end up getting socked right in the kisser by Kristina.
On top of that, what Kristina was washing now was her own clerical uniform. Eugene had plenty of clothes packed into his cloak that he could change into, but Kristina didn’t share that option.
Kristina also had a bag that had some spatial enchantments cast on it, but her bag didn’t have as much storage space as the Cloak of Darkness. As they wandered through the forest, they couldn’t go a day without getting their clothes dirty somehow, but Kristina couldn’t stand having any dirt on her clerical uniform, which was always meant to be kept scrupulously clean.
—You can just wear some other clothes.
—If a priest doesn’t wear their clerical clothing, what else are they supposed to wear? Especially as it is by God’s will that I am accompanying you, Sir Eugene, so I absolutely cannot take off my priestly garb.
It wasn’t like he didn’t get where she was coming from. In Eugene’s previous life, Anise had also stubbornly insisted on wearing her clerical uniform while they were traveling.
‘Although in Helmuth she just wore whatever she picked up,’ Eugene recalled.
In any case, this meant that it was Kristina herself who had decided that it was a good idea to do the laundry barefoot in cold river water. As such, Eugene didn’t feel any guilt about not using laundry spells to help her. He would be drying the wet clothes with the help of a wind spirit once Kristina was done with washing her laundry, and wasn’t doing that much already helpful enough?
“...Hmm…” Eugene suddenly hummed as he paused his reading of the magical text and raised his head.
This wasn’t in reaction to movement from the fishing rod. Getting up from his chair, Eugene dusted off the seat of his pants and turned to look upstream.
“Is it a monster?” Kristina asked, turning to look at Eugene while pausing in the midst of wringing her robes dry.
This forest was infested with monsters, but they couldn’t discount the possibility of it being bandits either. But since they were doing their laundry near a river, it was more likely that they had managed to provoke one of the monsters living in the river into attacking them..
“No,” Eugene replied as he picked up the fishing rod. “It’s a big catch.”
With a grin, Eugene cast his fishing rod. As the long fishing line spooled out, it was covered by Eugene’s mana. Eugene manipulated the fishing line using his will and caught on to an object that had come floating in from upstream.
“...An elf?” Kristina questioned with an alarmed expression.
Eugene pulled the elf that he had caught onto the riverbank. The tropical Samar Rainforest was always muggy, but the water of the river was cold. After looking down at the pale, exhausted body of the elf, Eugene stretched out his hand.
Though the elf’s body was as cold as ice, they were still barely breathing. Eugene first summoned a wind spirit to dry their wet clothes, then created a flame using magic.
“Kristina,” Eugene called out.
“Yes,” Kristina responded as she immediately stopped what she was doing and came to the elf’s side.
A bright light shone from her hands and swept over the elf’s body. With this, color returned to their skin quickly enough that the change could be seen with the naked eye.
‘...So they’re a slave,’ Eugene confirmed.
Lifting the hem of their clothing, Eugene found a mark that had been branded on them near their navel. Although slavery had already been abolished during his previous life, even back then there were an abundant amount of illegal slaves.
“...The leg…,” Kristina muttered in concern.
“It was amputated a long time ago. They must have cut it off themself,” Eugene said as he glanced down at the elf’s left leg.
The surface of the stump looked like it had been roughly abraded, and blood kept flowing from it. It looked like their cheap prosthetic leg had dug into their flesh.
“Could they have escaped from a slave trader?” Kristina speculated.
“We’ll find out as soon as we wake them up,” Eugene answered.
Although the elf’s circumstances were pitiable, their coincidental meeting could be considered a stroke of luck for Eugene. Eugene grabbed the elf by the shoulders and lightly shook them a few times.
“Cough!” Before even opening their eyes, the elf let out a cough and vomited out some water.
Then, they moaned as they tried to twist their body free from Eugene’s hold.
“You shouldn’t move around so much,” Eugene warned them.
They may have given the elf some emergency treatment, but even when putting it generously, the elf couldn’t be described as being in good health. Bruises covered their entire body and the number of fractures…. These injuries didn’t appear to be from an assault. They were probably sustained by falling into the water from a great height.
“...Kyaaah!” the elf screamed, when they realized what kind of situation they were in.
“I probably should have started by telling them not to scream,” Eugene muttered to himself as he let go of the elf's body.
The elf, who had been switching between looking at Eugene and Kristina from the moment they opened their eyes, started to crawl away from them backwards.
The elf stammered. “Y-y-you two, who are you? Tribals?”
“Even though we’ve done all we can to save you, it seems like you don’t feel the need to hold back with your rudeness,” Eugene wryly observed.
“I-I’m sorry. So sorry.” The elf panickedly apologized.
Although Eugene had only been complaining half-heartedly, the elf immediately started begging for forgiveness while knocking their head on the ground.
After blatantly observing this sight, Kristina glanced at Eugene.
“It seems like your face and behavior have frightened them, Sir Eugene,” Kristina teased.
“What about my face?” Eugene asked defensively. “It might not be as good as an elf’s, but it’s good enough that I don’t feel ashamed taking it with me wherever I go.”
“...Ahaha!” Kristina burst out into laughter.
Without lifting their bowed head, the elf clasped their hands and rubbed their palms together[2] as they said, “Yes, yes. The lord’s face is truly impressive. It’s so amazing that no elf can even think of comparing to you. Th-the madam is also extremely beautiful.”
“...Madam?” Eugene repeated in confusion.
“I-I’m sorry. S-so sorry.” The elf apologized once more. “I meant the young lady, the young lady is truly beautiful.”
“What’s wrong with them? Could their brain be a bit damaged as well,” Eugene muttered to himself as he furrowed his brow.
At this, the elf stopped rubbing their hands together and started banging their head against the ground as they said, “Ye-yes. That’s right. Brain damage. M-my head isn’t that good. So please, f-forgive me if I’m being foolish or fail to obey your orders….”
“You try to calm them down a bit,” Eugene said as he immediately stepped back behind Kristina.
At this, Kristina just pointed at the basket packed full of wet laundry with a smile, then she turned to the elf and said, “I’ve heard that your race is beautiful, and you seem to be living proof of that. My name is Kristina. I am a priest who worships the God of Light. The man over there drying the clothes is my servant and bodyguard, so please don’t be too afraid of him.”
What the hell did she mean, servant? As Eguene grumbled to himself, he summoned up a spirit of the wind. The spirit began to dry the wet clothes.
Kristina continued to placate the elf. “We have no intentions of intimidating or harming you. Instead, we would actually like to protect you from any misfortune you might be in.”
The elf hesitated. “A-are you really…?
“Yes, of course it’s the truth. After all, it’s only natural that the duty of a priest is to help and rescue those in trouble. And if there was a Hero in this world, he too certainly wouldn’t hesitate to do what is just and right.” As Kristina said this, she gave Eugene a glance.
She had purposefully raised her voice so that he could hear her. Eugene just snorted as he casually folded the dried-out clothes.
“...M-my name is… Narissa.” The elf eventually introduced herself.
Then, she started to tell them such a tragic tale that it would bring tears to any listeners.
To put it simply, Narissa was a runaway slave. Her owner, a wealthy merchant in the Kiehl Empire, had bought Narissa on the black market ten years ago.
“And how old are you now?” Kristina asked gently.
Narissa resplied, “I’m a hundred and thirty….”
“If we convert that to human years, that means you’re just thirteen,” Eugene muttered.
“Human years? What do you mean by that?” Kristina asked as she turned to Eugene with a perplexed expression.
Eugene explained, “The lifespan of an elf roughly extends to a thousand years. Normal humans can live somewhere up to a hundred years if they can manage a long life without any disease, so if you convert an elf lifespan into a human lifespan, every hundred years for them counts as ten years for us.”
“What kind of foolish nonsense is that….” Kristina shook her head as she muttered this.
The logic behind his claim seemed so absurd that it wasn’t even funny, but Narissa just clapped her hands in agreement with a servile smile as she said, “Y-yes. In elf years I might be a hundred and thirty years old, but in human years, I’m only thirteen….”
Eugene continued his interrogation, “So where is your hometown? Were you born in Samar?”
“...My hometown is in Kiehl Empire’s Mount Odon,” Narissa admitted.
“Are there elves living there as well?” Eugene asked in surprise.
“Not… not any more.” After saying this, Narissa’s head sunk low, unable to find any more words.
Eugene and Kristina could figure out what had happened without even asking. It was rare for an elf to have been living in hiding deep within the mountains, but it wasn’t rare for such an elf who lived in hiding to be captured and enslaved by a slaver.
Kristina sighed. “Haaah…. How pitiful….”
After a long time, Kristina finally showed the appearance of a real Saint. She spread her arms and embraced Narissa, stroking her trembling back.
“It must have been so painful for you,” Kristina murmured sympathetically. “You had to cut off your own ankle just to escape, and then you came all the way to this forest….”
Eugene stepped past Kristina as she continued to comfort Narissa. Still stroking Narissa’s back, she glanced at Eugene, but didn’t say anything. She just nodded at him, causing Eugene to grin.
Elves were a strong race.
Unlike humans, they possessed an affinity with all spirits, and could sense mana even without any specific training. Their muscles were also far more flexible and durable than a human’s.
Hunters were always well-informed about the races that they hunted, and only went hunting after making thorough preparations.
This was the same for the tribespeople who lived in this forest. They were born as hunters, and raised as hunters. An ordinary human being might not have been able to survive jumping from a tall cliff and landing in the river below. From such a height, landing on water was no different from landing on rock.
If it was a human, they would have died, but an elf wouldn’t have.
It wasn’t just because their bodies were stronger. Having an affinity to spirits literally meant being loved by those spirits. The main reason why elves could run so fast was that the spirits dispersed throughout the wind pushed them from behind. That also applied to this kind of fall — the wind and the river water would have protected the elf’s body.
Knowing that, the slavers hadn’t stopped their pursuit of the elf.
“So you’re from the Garung Tribe.” Eugene greeted the hunters from where he was sitting, on a large rock.
It had been a month since they had first entered the rainforest. They hadn’t just been wandering around during all that time. They had also encountered a few merchants who were traversing the forest, and they had even met a few of the natives who belonged to different tribes.
They weren’t very pleasant meetings. The merchants mocked Kristina’s cover as a missionary, and the natives had tried to enslave the two foreigners who were traveling alone without an escort.
All of them had immediately paid the price for acting like idiots. Through this process, Eugene had heard about the various tribes who lived in this forest.
The deeper you went into the forest, the more savage and ferocious the natives became, especially in their ostracization of outsiders. The Garung were an example of one such tribe. They captured all foreigners and made them their tribe’s slaves.
If the foreigner they caught was a wealthy merchant or a noble who had come for a luxurious tour, they had a chance of being handed back over once the tribe received a large enough ransom. But even then, that was only if those who were captured got lucky. If they weren’t lucky they would just be killed and eaten. Some of the native tribes practiced cannibalism, and the Garung were one such tribe.
“Outsider,” spoke one of the natives riding on the backs of their large wolves.
He had pulled up the mask on his face, making it obvious that he was staring at Eugene. The native’s face was covered in scars and tattoos.
“What. You. Doing. Here?” the native demanded.
Unlike his vicious appearance, it seemed that he could speak the common language, but he enunciated the words slowly and in a slightly slurred manner.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Eugene replied. “I’m just sitting here and resting.”
The native continued his curt questioning. “A noble? From where?”
“Who wants to know?” Eugene returned the question impudently.
“This smell,” the native said with a frown as he sniffed the air.
Eugene chuckled and picked up a corner of his cloak to examine it.
“Does it really give off such a smell? There’s no reason why it should,” Eugene argued. “I’m on the tidy side, so I wash my body every day.”
“It smells of elf,” the native growled.
“Do I look like an elf?” Eugene asked mockingly.
“Outsider,” the native said as it slipped his mask back down from where it had been propped up. “Garung's prey. Have you stolen it?”
“What kind of prey comes with an owner? It’s whoever catches it first that becomes its owner,” Eugene said with a shrug as he dropped the corner of his cloak.
The giant wolves charged at him.